12 - week NT Scan

As is with most things in life, you never really know about something until have actually lived it.  Since we've been pregnant, we have learned so much...about the process and about ourselves.  We've had to evaluate our morals and lifestyle because now we are planning for something that is so much bigger than us.
One of the big decisions we had to make this pregnancy was whether or not to have a 1st Trimester NT (nuchal translucency) Scan.  This is a type of genetic screening that couples an ultrasound and bloodwork to assess your baby's risk of being born with Down's Syndrome or Trisomy 18.  This procedure is strongly suggested for women over the age of 35, but offered to all women.  It is a screening test, not a diagnostic test so the results will not tell you "yes (or no), you will have a baby with Down's Syndrome."  Rather, the results will lower or increase the risk you are already assigned, based on your age. 

The decision

There are many people who choose not to have the procedure done because, they claim, that even if they found out their risk was increased substantially they would not terminate the pregnancy or, they claim, they would not want to have to live the last 6 months of their pregnancy agonizing over whether or not their baby would have a genetic disorder.  The other camp of parents, the one which Bryan and I are in, decide to have this procedure done because we want to know - everything we can - and in the event that our risk is increased we can be more prepared - emotionally, mentally, and financially.  This doesn't mean we would terminate, we absolutely would not.
My mother falls into the first category.  I have a younger sister who was born when I was in 6th grade and my mother was in her early 40s.  I remember thinking that I was probably going to have a new sister that had Down's Syndrome.  My youngest sister was not born with Down Syndrome or any other genetic disorder and I just remember feeling that our family got "lucky."  I finally asked my mother, after our NT Scan was already scheduled, why we thought my sister was going to have Down Syndrome.  Just as I suspected, she had the NT Scan done and her risks had increased substantially.  She said to me, 19 years later, that she wished she had never gotten the test done because it had caused her such grief in the last months of her pregnancy. 

The appointment

Bryan and I still went ahead with our appointment.  It started with us watching a presentation about the screening, and then we met with a genetic counselor to answer any of our questions.  I did ask our genetic counselor about my mother, and she basically told me that 20-years ago any woman in her early 40's encountered an increased risk.  We then went in for the scan and our little one did not want to cooperate!   One of the measurements that must be taken during this ultrasound is a measurement of the fluid present at the back of the fetal neck, babies with Down's Syndrome or other chromosomal abnormalities tend to have more fluid present, was proving impossible to get!  The tech had me do all sorts of things to get the baby to more and be positioned correctly - and after about :45 minutes she were able to get a measurement.
This appointment was also so much more to us - it was the first time we were actually able to tell that we had a little one in the making!  Our first ultrasound of this pregnancy was at 6 weeks, and little one looked like a blob.  This appointment we were able to make out the profile of an infant, see him/her flipping around and moving limbs.  It was amazing.  Here is a picture of our little one at 12 weeks 4 days:

The results

We got the results of our tests back in a little over a week and were ecstatic to learn that our risks for having a baby with a chromosomal abnormality (of those tested) were lowered significantly based on my age at delivery!  Yay!